Ravinia 2024 Issue 5

Samara Joy is making her Ravinia debut at the age of 24. To describe her career thus far as “auspicious” is an understatement. While a senior at Ford- ham High School for the Arts, she was awarded Best Vocalist at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competi- tion. She graduated magna cum laude from SUNY Purchase College, where she became the school’s Ella Fitzgerald Scholar. During those college years, she won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, one of the world’s most competitive vocal jazz contests (singers Dee Dee Bridgewater and Jane Monheit and bassist Christian Mc- Bride were among the judges). Upon graduating in 2021, she released her self-titled album. Linger Awhile , her sophomore recording and debut on the venerable Verve Records—captured over a mere two days at the Sear Sound studios in New York—was released in 2022. It received the Grammy for Best Jazz Album, while Joy rode its merits to be honored as Best New Artist at the 2023 ceremonies, the first time a jazz artist won that honor since 2011, when Esperanza Spalding beat out Drake and Justin Bieber. (“I was still in shock until like a couple of months ago,” she told Huffington Post .) Earlier this year, she earned her third Grammy, this time hoisting the Best Jazz Performance tro- phy for her single “Tight.” Her original song “Why I’m Here” was featured in the Netflix biopic Shirley , a feature about the first Black congresswoman, Shirley Chisholm. Boffo on the music festival circuit (Newport, Monterey, Montreal), she has performed at such venerable venues as the Village Vanguard, the Apollo, and the Blue Note and has made the rounds of morning, syndicated, and late-night talk shows ( TODAY , The Kelly Clark- son Show , The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ). Oh, and she also last fall released A Joyful Holiday, an EP of Christmas songs, which was recorded in one day! In addition to wowing audiences, she has received rapturous acclaim from other musicians. In a 2022 New York Times profile, Christian McBride said her vocals are “full of wisdom.” “ To have this amazing art form that was created by Black people, it was exciting. It was a challenge. It was beautiful. ” RAVINIAMAGAZINE • AUGUST 19 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2024 8 MEREDITHTRAUX